Advances in poultry embryology have made possible the addition of various materials to the embryo or to the environment around the embryo within an avian egg for the purpose of encouraging beneficial effects in the subsequently hatched chick. Such beneficial effects include increased growth, prevention of disease, increasing the percentage hatch of multiple incubated eggs, and otherwise improving physical characteristics of hatched poultry. Additionally, certain types of vaccinations which could previously only be carried out upon either recently hatched or fully mature poultry can now be successful in the embryonated chick.
In ovo vaccination techniques can increase vaccination efficiency and can reduce stress on young chicks caused by injection. Conventional in ovo inoculating devices typically inject all eggs contained within an egg flat. An exemplary in ovo inoculating device that injects all eggs contained within an egg flat is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,635 to Hebrank.
Unfortunately, it may not be desirable to administer vaccinations into every egg contained within an egg flat. For example, "clear" eggs are eggs that do not contain an embryo and, thus, may not subsequently hatch as a chick. The administration of vaccinations into clear eggs generally serves no purpose and may be considered wasteful. In addition, mold may grow in clear eggs that have been injected, thus increasing the risk of exposing other eggs and hatched chicks to undesirable contamination. Furthermore, injected clear eggs may increase the risk of contamination resulting from albumin leaking therefrom. Accordingly, it is desirable to quickly identify and remove clear eggs from an egg flat prior to the in ovo administration of vaccinations via automatic inoculating devices.
It may also be desirable to selectively remove certain eggs from an egg flat. For example, it may be desirable to remove certain types of eggs, such as all male eggs, all rotten eggs, and the like. As another example, it may be desirable to remove all live eggs in order to move them to another egg flat or injection apparatus.
A conventional device 5 for removing eggs from an egg flat is illustrated in FIG. 1. A plurality of suction devices 7 are configured to engage the upwardly facing portions of a respective plurality of individual eggs 14 within an egg flat 10, and hold the eggs by suction while carrying them to a receptacle 11. During removal of eggs, it is conventionally expected that some breakage of eggs will occur. Accordingly, it is conventionally expected that egg removal devices will become contaminated with the contents of broken eggs.
Unfortunately, conventional egg removal devices, such as that illustrated in FIG. 1, are complex and bulky devices that can be difficult and time consuming to clean. Maintaining conventional egg removal devices in sanitary condition, thus, can be expensive and labor intensive. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide egg removal devices that can be quickly and easily cleaned.